Wood suppliers for handles

Mon Jul 22, 2013 1:56 pm

A couple of my knife suppliers in Japan have asked me where we get the wood we use for handles. My main source is Mark at It's a Burl AKA Burl Source. You guys have any other favorites? http://www.burlsource.us/servlet/StoreFront

Look for some higher end handles going forward from my suppliers. When the rosewood handle maker doubled prices recently it really put some pressure on the knife makers to come up with different types of handles. I've had 4 guys contact me so far....

Re: Wood suppliers for handles

Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:33 pm

Dream Burls, Bad Dog Burls/Burl Source (in Massachusetts, Shaun uses him a lot), Arizona Ironwood does bulk discounts (where I've been getting the dyed Redwoods and Box Elder Burls lately) and of course, Mark at Burl Source/It's a Burl. Brian Hayes sent me the name of a guy in PA that does really nice work stabilizing woods, too and Craig Stevens on Ebay has awesome stuff, but it's expensive and can be wild looking. For non stabilized stuff, Rockler and WoodCraft get the nod, as well as D&D hardwoods online out of PA.

Re: Wood suppliers for handles

Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:51 pm

SteveG wrote:Is that the reason that Moritaka is starting to change over to Yew wood handles? I actually think the Yew handle on your Artifex 240 Wa Gyuto is really nice.

Yes they were confronted with either getting a new handle source or a big price hike and they decided to go with another handle type. I suggested yew octagonals since I really like the way they look on the Richmond wa-gyuto and they liked them too. They look great against the kurouchi finish on the blades.